The Federal 100 awards banquet was last night, and I believe a good time was had by all. Of course, all the winners can be found at www.fcw.com/fed100.
I spoke about Fed 100 on Federal News Radio yesterday. Here it here. (Earlier, Karen Evans was on talking about the initiative to move to a standard desktop configurations. Then they had me on following Karen. Whew! Hear Karen here... and me here.)
Some tidbits:
* Two big buzz items: the Doan hearing and Networx. The Doan hearing is coming up on Wednesday. There was general consensus that the story the WP ran on Page One Monday was nothing new and pretty much a hatchet job -- nothing new yet on page one. And, to be honest, there is some buzz about whether Doan will stick around. She was scheduled to be at the event, but she canceled. No shock to anybody, really. As Federal Computer Week has stated in its editorials, GSA is an important organization, and we hope she does well tomorrow.
* Networx. I opened up my remarks by asking GSA's John Johnson and Jim Williams if they wanted to give us any information about Networx. They didn't, of course. They're pros, so they would never do that. The word is that GSA will let bidders know Wednesday, let congressionals know late Wednesday, and let the rest of us know Thursday. Of course, we all thought it would be last Friday.
Meanwhile, there is some speculation that GSA was trying to get the contract out before the hearing, but GSA leaders decided to wait until after the hearing. No idea how true it is, but that's what people are saying.
* We will have photos posted online today. And if you have photos, send them along to photos@fcw.com and we'll post them, too.
* I gave GTSI's Leslie Barry my camera, so later this week, we'll post the Fed 100 from the Barry perspective. They will all be at www.fcw.com/fed100.
* What is 1105? As you know, our parent company is 1105 Media, and our group is 1105 Government Information Group. So what does 1105 stand for? Ah... Well, here is a way to win many bar game drinks. Our CEO is Neal Vitale. His daughter is Marissa Claire Vitale -- initials MCV, which, for those who know anything about Roman Numerals, is 1105. So now you know.
* Paula Poundstone was the comedian at the Fed 100 this year. She interacted with the audience a lot, including in a discussion with Vitale and Evans. Given that Poundstone has a quick wit, they did well.
She asked Vitale how the whole merger came about. He said, '1105 bought PostNewsweek Tech Media.' The very quick Poundstone responded, "So, when you were five years old, that's what you wanted to do -- buy PostNewsweek Tech Media?'
Meanwhile she asked Evans how she got the White House gig. "By demonstrating results," Evans responded. Poundstone seemed to be impressed.
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